Started removing the old floor, fun times

[Toolmanbt]

After a year or two of reading the great articles here, Im jumping in with both feet with my 1976 27' Tradewind. Gutted the interior, started removing the rotten plywood floor from the rear and making my way forward. Carefully cutting plywood around the bolts that hold the floor to the frame, using a multi cutting tool. The bolts on the outer edge, I ended up using a reciprocating saw and cut the rusted nut and bolt off and then punched the remaining bolt up into the inside of the trailer. The plan is to remove the floor, remove the belly pan, remove all of the holding tanks and then start the process of inspecting the frame. So far from what I can see, the frame looks to be in pretty good condition. Yes there is the frame rust at the rear but I'm hoping its just surface rust, we will see. The fender wells seem to be a bit tricky to remove, I have drilled out all of the rivets on the outside and the screws from the inside but the outer trim still seems to be stuck on there and I don't want to put to much force on it and bend something.
Think Ill stick to removing the floor for now and see if I can get a better look at the wheel wells after that. Im going to try and post some pics, first time so ?

[Toolmanbt]

Add pic

[DremStremer]

Welcome to the Forum. It sounds like you have a good start on your renovation. I started renovating my Safari last summer. The first thing I did was remove the belly pan. It was the quickest way to find out the condition of the frame. I was happy to discover the frame wasn't that bad. There was a stress crack over the axel on the roadside and the typical rust out in the rear cross member. These issues have been repaired and a new axel is waiting to be installed. I look forward to seeing pictures of your progress.

[Toolmanbt]

Thanks DremStremer,

No progress in the last few days, work gets in the way.

Im going to try posting a pic again

[sgschwend]

My 2 cents:
It looks to me that you will have a easy time at working on the frame.

Keep in mind what will be your future flooring type and make sure your framing will provide the stability.

Airstream often used vinyl or carpet, both very forgiving for floor movement. Today most folks used a flooring that needs a stiffer sub-floor.

[Toolmanbt]

just learning how to up load pics

[Toolmanbt]

again

[Toolmanbt]

Another pic, ok think I finally figured it out.

[Toolmanbt]

Working on removing the old wood rot sub floor. Question for one of you Airstreamer that have removed and replaced there sub floor before with the shell on approach. Can you remove all of the plywood at the same time ? or is it better to remove and replace half the floor at a time ?

The weather looks good today and its my day off so time to work on the Airstream.

[Toolmanbt]

Progress today removing the floor today. Another section of plywood removed along with the wheel wells.

[goransons]

Looking good! Make sure to support the shell so it doesn’t drop and make sure it is very very secure to the frame. Even a light wind can lift that body like a sail (unless you’re lucky enough to have that in a shop)